The Christian and The Supernatural

As the crowds were increasing, He began to say, “This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks for a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah.”–Luke 11:29

The fact that believers often clamor for the supernatural is understandable, since many have been covertly taught that God’s stamp of approval is His supernatural response in our daily activities.Having God continually act in supernatural ways for us personally is viewed as proof that we are special, not mere dots on the planet. Those who have accepted and identified with the above theory make the following types of statements. “God noticed me! I have worth, value, an identity.” “God sought me out. I had no intentions of getting married, of becoming a minister, of moving to another place. I said, ‘God, if You want me, You will have to come and get me!’ Then God spoke to me, He visited me, He turned my car around.” In other words, “I am special, He wants me, He comes after me supernaturally.” This emphasis also leads the “less fortunate” to make the following statements: “God let me down, He does not notice, care, or work in my life.” “I guess I do not measure up or will ever be good enough,” or, “I will no longer trust God! He allowed my wife to die of cancer, a child to rebel, my unwed daughter to get pregnant, financial bankruptcy, my marriage to be a failure, or my ministry to dissolve.” In short, so this belief system goes, those God loves He blesses, and those He wants to get even with find evil! What seems good reflects His pleasure, and what we perceive as bad indicates His displeasure. The measure of God’s concern for us, then, is seen as His supernatural activity in life to the degree that it makes us comfortable and leaves us feeling good.

Maintaining this kind of thinking is, first of all, anti-God; second, it is Taoism; and third, it is eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This rationale places incredible pressure on believers to act and speak in such a way as to solicit the supernatural activity of God. We are strained, hating ourselves for not doing enough to reap God’s pleasure and angry with Him for not noticing us. We dislike the partiality that He shows, then hate ourselves for disparaging God, and feel we must protect God’s image as well as our own.

Now for a moment let us lay aside all thoughts of the supernatural and move in a different direction to ponder God’s working in the natural.

Often when discipling a discouraged believer I will ask the question, “Did you sometime in the past five years, five weeks, or maybe five days, while reading your Bible, listening to a sermon, or reading a good book, happen to say to God, ‘You can have my life. I want all that is possible for a human who knows You. I want the deep spiritual life; I want a marriage that works’?” Invariably the believer will say yes! I then respond, “Well, that explains it. If you wanted to remain unchanged and comfortable, God would not be using the natural in your life to perfect the answering of your expressed desires.”

What is God’s goal for the believer? We can read it in Matthew 5 - 7, the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount, Christ’s life, now the Christian’s life. Everything that we read there is supernatural.Any believer who has attempted to love an enemy knows just how supernatural it is. It takes more Spirit activity to walk across the living room and kiss a mate who offends us than it does to walk on water. In order to reveal the supernatural, the Lord created and dropped man into the natural world, wherein all that comes to him by way of mind, emotion, and body is intended to produce what is unnatural as the natural gives way to the supernatural. The supernatural does not give birth to the supernatural; angels are angels. However, men made of dust, dwelling on the natural earth, can become the sons of God! Supernatural? I think so! Explaining the process of allowing the natural to make us supernatural is somewhat like describing childbirth; it is never really understood until it is one’s own experience. 

Let me give some examples. We go through the natural experience of having no money, no job, and no hope in sight. All of this drives us to look to Him whose presence makes us sense the true wealth in which we participate. Next we can find ourselves relaxed with a lightness of heart concerning finances in the midst of a clamoring world. Supernatural!

We develop out-of-control feelings that come from watching a government make decisions that we cannot live with. First we attempt to change the flesh in the power of the flesh, then we eloquently describe the inconsistencies we see, at length we become disheartened, and in the end we pray. His presence gives comfort, His power fills us with assurance, and His love brings us hope. We know the whole lot in life passes through His hands, and so we rest, we trust, we get on with the real mission, and we live supernaturally in a world falling apart.

The media reports each night how someone, somewhere, is being abused, and we are left feeling hopeless and negative, a state that may suit the world, but it drags down the spirit of the believer. We were made to love God, love life, love our fellow man, and love our work. We draw near to Him to be a positive in a negative world. The sense of wrongness with our lot gives way to the relationship as we experience the greatest positive, Jesus, and become light in the world.

- Mike Wells

Do It Yourself?

Bringing into captivity every thought
   to the obedience of Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:5

In our Lord's life every project was disciplined to the
will of the Father. There was not a movement of an
impulse of His own will as distinct from His Father's--
"The Son can do nothing of Himself."
Then take ourselves--a vivid religious experience,
and every project born of impulse put into action
immediately, instead of being imprisoned and disci-
plined to obey Christ.

This is a day when practical work is overemphasized,
and the saints who are binging every project into cap-
tivity are criticized and told they are not in earnest for
God or for souls. True earnestness is found in obeying
God, not in the inclination to serve Him that is born
of undisciplined human nature. It is inconceivable,
but true nevertheless, that saints are not bringing e-
very project into captivity, but are doing for God at the
instigation of their own human nature which has not
been spiritualized by determined discipline.

We are apt to forget that a man is not only committed
to Jesus Christ for salvation; he is committed to Jesus
Christ's view of God, of the world, of sin, and of the
devil, and that will mean that he must recognize the
responsibility of being transformed by the renewing
of his mind. 

- Oswald Chambers

Tend My Sheep

So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, {son} of John, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My lambs.” --John 21:15

It is interesting that Peter was to tend the sheep in response to loving Jesus. I loved having sheep as a child; it was great fun feeding and watching them. They definitely do need tending. Jesus did not tell Peter to fatten the sheep; that is the job of the butcher. He did not say stimulate and excite the sheep; that is the job of the wolf. He gave the job of shepherding to Peter. So many wipe out because of lack of encouragement and food. What feeds the sheep is the true Word, Jesus. Just talking about Jesus will allow the disciple-maker to feed and tend the sheep. Often I meet people who are so down, so depressed, but simply bringing up the name of Jesus or something He taught or said will bring a lift to their spirits. This is tending. Much of what we see called worship today is only of man; it is not feeding, shepherding, or tending.

My grandfather hated feedlots. It was his feeling that cattle and sheep were something to be nurtured; they needed space and quality conditions. I was surprised once to discover that the feedlots were giving the cattle plastic pellets to eat, for after all, they took the place of grain and could be recycled. Despite the fact that there was no nutritional value in the pellets, they were formulated to trick the normal digestive system of the cow. Church today is full of plastic pellets. Oh, we sing, we jump, we worship (sing ourselves happy), and yet we leave so dissatisfied with nothing to keep us in the coming hours when spiritual strength is needed at work or at home. Tend the sheep! Simply speak of Jesus to one another. This is the food that will keep us beyond the conversation, the sermon, and the meeting. Colossians 3:16 & 17, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.”

- Mike Wells

To Live is Christ

For me, to live is Christ...  Phil 1:21

A Christian is one who has become spiritually alive
from the dead. The presence of spiritual life within
him is the one fundamental thing that distinguishes
him from the unregenerate world about him.

This spiritual life is not native to us, nor can it be de-
veloped out of anything we have or are by nature. It
must be given to us. So God has given us eternal life
"and this life is in His Son, "through whose posses-
sion of us when we believed on Him we were born
from above; "not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God"; by which
we have become a "new creation" in Christ, thereby
made "partakers of the divine nature."

The life of the Christian, therefore, is the life of Christ
within us through the Holy Spirit. It is not a life simi-
lar to His, it is His life. This is shown by the fact that
what we receive in the new birth is not only "everlast-
ing life, but also "eternal life."  For while everlasting
life has no end, yet it may have a beginning; but eter-
nal life has neither beginning nor end.

Now the Triune God is the only one in the universe
who has eternal life. The only way He can give us e-
ternal life, therefore, is to possess us with His own life,
through Christ, by the Holy Spirit.This is one thing
Paul meant when he said,
"To me to live is Christ."
This is a mystery that is too high for us. We can none
of us understand it, but we can believe it.  JE Conant

Think of the Tabernacle of old where Life
and glory came down to dwell. The covering of the
Tabernacle was dark, but, oh, the inside was explod-
ing with light. When we come to Christ we are put
into Him and He is put into us. It is way beyond my
understanding. I hope you take the time to ponder
this blog. It has taken me years to realize a little bit
of what I have IN CHRIST.

For God so loved the world that He gave his only
begotten Son that we might not perish, but have
eternal life. John 3:16

"Bring her out and let her be burned!"

“Bring her out and let her be burned!” This dramatic pronouncement of judgment gets me every time I read it. And through long familiarity, it has become one of my favorite Bible passages. That’s weird, I know. Yet it’s not a favorite in the sense that I’d recommend it as a life verse or a tattoo or the inside of a greeting card. It’s a favorite in the sense that it speaks so truly about the state of humanity. And it speaks so truly about the way God redeems darkness for his good purposes.

Let’s set our context. Judah has married a Canaanite woman and, through her, had three sons. Years have passed and the oldest, Er, has taken Tamar as a wife. But Er is so overwhelmingly wicked that God puts him to death, and his bride passes to Onan, the middle brother. Onan is even worse than Er and he, too, is judged and killed by God. Now, according to custom, Tamar should become the wife of Shelah, the baby of the family. Judah promises this will happen once Shelah is old enough. But the years go by and it becomes apparent this is a promise he does not intend to keep. I guess it is easier to see Tamar as a bad luck charm than to admit the evil of his own boys. Tamar is destined to suffer the pain and shame of childlessness. Or is she?

Tamar hatches a plan. According to the principles of the culture, it is her right to have a child by Shelah, but since Judah will not grant this right, she will find a way to gain it herself. Knowing that Judah has recently lost his wife and is perhaps eager to find some “comfort,” she dresses as a prostitute (including a veil to mask her identity). She waits for him to pass by and sure enough, he soon does. He spots her, he makes an offer, she accepts, and he “goes in to her.”

Tamar soon realizes she is pregnant and it is not long before it becomes obvious to others as well. The townsfolk are abuzz with news of her great immorality and reports soon reach Judah: “Tamar your daughter-in-law has been immoral. Moreover, she is pregnant by immorality.” It is in this context that Judah makes a snap judgment: “Bring her out, and let her be burned.” But Tamar gets the last laugh. She has kept proof that the father of her child is none other than her father-in-law. He can claim no moral high ground. In fact, he is forced to admit, “She is more righteous than I.”

As I read this story every January (as part of my annual Bible-reading plan) and at various other times, I see such an indictment of not only Judah, but of all humanity. Here is some of what I see.

We see other people’s sin so clearly and our own so opaquely. From a great distance and with the scantest information we can judge another person’s least transgression. Yet we can rack our own hearts and minds and often barely come up with a single way we are anything less than perfect. What we see so well in others we simply do not see in ourselves.

We see other people’s sin as so serious and our own as so insignificant. We judge other people’s actions with the harshest of measures but treat our own with the softest. After all, we tend to grow fond of our sins, and especially those besetting sins. But all the while we hate the sins of others, and especially sins that annoy, harm, or inconvenience us.

We want others to act toward our sin with patience and understanding even while we act ruthlessly toward theirs. We can make any number of excuses for the fact that indwelling sin remains. We can describe a long and happy progress in which we’ve slowly but progressively put a sin to death. Yet with others we demand they put their sin to death today. Right now. The slow progress that encourages us in our own battle against sin exasperates us in someone else’s.

There is much more we could say, perhaps about Judah’s refusal to take responsibility for Tamar when she was out of the public eye but his leap to action when her sin threatened to bring him shame. It is worth pointing out, though, that the Bible speaks no judgment on either character. It neither condemns nor affirms Tamar’s actions. It does, though, tell of the happy ending to the story when she gives birth to not one but two sons. It tells of an even happier ending she, herself, could not have expected, for her name appears in the genealogy of Jesus Christ when it records, “Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar.” God brought good from evil, blessing from injustice.

- Tim Challies

Take the Blame!

Then let me bear the blame before my father forever. --Genesis 44:32

There is much said today about the person who is a blame-taker. We are told that blame is something that we are not to wear, and indeed, so few believers are willing to take the blame for their condition, yet there is a measure of integrity that comes from being willing to take blame. 

Often when I have been discipling a person God has revealed something about him He was not yet revealing to the person. Therefore, I did not mention it but stored it in the back of my mind. I know that I have no right to bring out a shortcoming that He is not revealing, for with His revelation will always come the power to overcome it. When He reveals a failure, it is not a burden, for His power accompanies it, and with the power comes hope.My point is that oftentimes others have annoying, carnal, self-centered behavior that we see and they cannot. Why? Obviously, it is to work something in us. However, instead of looking to the Lord and within, we make the mistake of looking to them and wondering at their condition.

Have you ever thought that you are to blame for your response to carnal persons? That their behavior is revealing your heart and carnality? Has their behavior revealed bitterness, lack of love, and your own carnality? You are to blame for your response! Do not fret about seeing others’ behavior; your behavior is the issue. When you are tempted to reject others who offend you, remember there is probably a bigger fish to fry, and that fish is you!

There is another aspect of blame-taking that is legitimate. II Samuel 12:4-7, “‘Now a traveler came to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take from his own flock or his own herd, to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him; rather he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.’ Then David’s anger burned greatly against the man, and he said to Nathan, ‘As the LORD lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die. And he must make restitution for the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing and had no compassion.’ Nathan then said to David, ‘You are the man! Thus says the LORD God of Israel, “It is I who anointed you king over Israel and it is I who delivered you from the hand of Saul.”’” 

Would David have judged another man’s failure had he known he was going to hear, “You are the man”?Unfortunately, I have spent a good part of my life judging others. I once had the opportunity to question an elderly saint, “Why do believers not finish well?”

He took a pen in his hand and asked, “Who holds the pen, who keeps it from falling, and who moves it from place to place?”

“You do,” I responded. 

He then “walked” the pen over to “look” at another pen that was lying down and had the upright pen say, “You pathetic pen! Look at you lying there; what a failure you must be!” Then the elderly gentleman dropped the pen he was holding and said that the pen is like a man who is touched by the glory of God, held by the glory of God, and moved by the glory of God, but then who takes the credit himself. All God need do is let go, and the man is as flat as those he judges.Man lives in pride, becoming a god unto himself and a god to others! A chill ran down my spine, for I could hear the voice of the prophet saying, “You are the man.” The only reason I have not left my family or have ever ministered to others or had a revelation of grace is that the glory of God was holding me. When I see hypocritical believers, those caught up in adultery, those with rebellious children, or those steeped in carnality, I just want to shut up! If I stand, it is not because of my own great strength and wisdom, but only because of the glory of God.

We can have no pride except in His goodness and glory.As abiding believers, we do not want only to preach that there is nothing the nearness of Jesus will not cure; we want to demonstrate it, showing that we believe in the glory of God.“Lord, I take the blame for judging! But I have come to a place where I am extremely frightened and want nothing to do with judging.”

- Mike Wells

Feeling Depressed?

My grace is sufficient for you. 2 Corinthians 12:9

The other day I was riding home after a hard days work.
I was very tired and deeply depressed, when quickly, and
as suddenly as a lightning bolt, the verse came to me:
"My grace is sufficient for you."When I arrived home I
looked it up in the Word, and it finally came to me this way:
"MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR YOU."
My response was to say, "Yes, Lord, I should think it is!
Then I burst out laughing.

Until that time, I had never understood what the holy laugh-
ter of Abraham was. This verse seemed to make unbelief
totally absurd. I pictured a little fish who was concerned a-
bout drinking the river dry, with Father River saying,
"Drink away, little fish, my stream is sufficient for you." I
also envisioned a mouse afraid of starving after seven
years of plenty, when Joseph says to him, "Cheer up, little
mouse; my granaries are sufficient for you." Again, I ima-
gined a man high on a mountain peak, saying to himself,
"I breathe so many cubic feet of air each year, I am afraid
I will deplete all the oxygen in the atmosphere. "But the
earth says to him, "Breathe away, filling your lungs forever;
my atmosphere is sufficient for you."

O people of God, be great believers! Little faith will bring
your souls to heaven, but great faith will bring heaven into
your souls.  Charles H Spurgeon--1833-1892

I did some research and discovered that this great
preacher had physical, spiritual and emotional difficulties
all of his life. I have posted a small part of this story below.
If you look to the left at other articles, you will find more
about his life, but not his the struggles in his life. It is com-
forting to me that many of those we think so perfect, have
many issues such as depression which was true of Spurgeon.
So take heart discouraged one, it is God in you that makes
all the difference!

- Jane

How To Grow in Self-Confidence

I am not, by nature, a person who has a lot of self-confidence. Quite the opposite, really. I care far too much about what other people think about me and concern myself far too much with looking good in their eyes. I can torment myself with shame and regret for little foibles and miscues, imagining what people are thinking, what they are saying to one another. For that reason I have spent much of my life trying to be unnoticed.

As a child I put great effort into trying to determine the seat in the classroom that was least conspicuous and would require the least eye-contact with the teacher. I did all I could to get out of situations that would put me before other students. I avoided plays and presentations and anything else that would make people notice me. It probably all bordered on a kind of neurosis. And it continued unabated into my teens and twenties.

That was then. Today I can usually stand in front of a group of people and do so with a pretty significant degree of confidence. I can stand in front of thousands of people (which is actually quite easy) or before a tiny group of people (which is far tougher) to speak, preach, or answer questions.

What made the difference? How did I gain that kind of confidence? I’m sure age and maturity helped, but there was one difference-maker that rises above all the rest: I determined that when I spoke I would do so with God’s authority, not mine. I decided I wouldn’t stand up in front of people and share my own opinions or bestow my own wisdom. Rather, I would ground what I say in the Bible. Lacking in confidence as I am, I would take my confidence from God. This is why I almost invariably ground not just sermons but also mere speeches or conference talks in a text of Scripture. This gives me the confidence that what I say is not my own, but God’s. It allows me to gain confidence that I’m standing on the most solid of ground, that I am communicating a message consistent with the Word of God and empowered by the Spirit of God.

Here is how I encourage others who are equally lacking in self-confidence: Grow in your knowledge of God’s Word. And having grown in your knowledge of that Word, grow in your ability to communicate it. Then, when given an opportunity to stand before people, ground your message in the timeless, unchanging truth of God’s Word. Make God’s wisdom your wisdom, shape your words by his words, let his confidence be your confidence. When you feel those waves of self-doubt rising, remind yourself that even though you’ve got nothing to say and no wisdom to offer, God most certainly does.

- Tim Challies

Standing Alone

If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore, the world hates you. --John 15:19

There will be several times throughout life that you will find yourself standing alone. It can be in times of deep inner need when no one comes to your aid. You might find yourself standing alone for truth in your workplace, home, or church. You may be rejected after sharing your faith or falsely accused with no one defending your character. Standing alone is not a unique experience. 

There are several approaches that can be taken when you find yourself standing alone. First, you can act like Job. “I waste away; I will not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are {but} a breath” (Job 7:16). He adjusted to his misery and became comfortable with it. Expectation and hope take effort. Pessimism holds out its hand and offers its own peculiar brand of friendship. Pessimism comforts by telling you what a clever person you are to recognize hopelessness. 

Second, you can take the approach of Paul.II Timothy 4:14, “Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds.” That is, others have caused your misery; if it were not for others, you could be in bliss. Therefore, comfort yourself with thoughts of others suffering for the pain they caused you. Your pain is a ten; theirs will be a hundred. This approach definitely will not leave your pain at a ten, though; it will increase it.

Third, you can approach standing alone as did Jesus.Luke 23:46, “And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, INTO THY HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT.’ And having said this, He breathed His last.” Though you are standing alone in your situation, you recognize you are never left alone. God will never leave or forsake you! Standing alone, there is no hindrance between you and the Father, not any other voice or opinion but His. Into His hands you commit your spirit! His hands! Can you imagine? He created man with His hands. He did miracles with His hands. He upheld His people with His hands. He keeps us from evil by His hands. In these hands you lay your spirit when you are standing alone. What happens next? The self-centered you breathes its last, for you cannot be in His hands and cling to selfishness.

- Mike Wells

Trials That Build Us

Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised
me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites
were there and their cities were large and fortified,
but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just
as he said.  Joshua 14: 12, 13

Extraordinary afflictions are not always punishment
for extraordinary sins. Sanctified afflictions are spiri-
tual promotions.  Matthew Henry

Some brothers and sisters have met few difficulties, but
they are spiritually feeble. The explanation is, they have
not consumed enough Anakim. On the other hand there
are those who have met difficulty and overcome. They
are full of vigor. The reason is, that they have fed well on
Anakim--(their giants.) Every difficulty and every tempta-
tion Satan puts in our way is food for us. This is a divine-
ly appointed means of spiritual progress. The sight of any
great trouble strikes terror into the heart of those, who
do not believe God, but those who trust Him say:
"Praise God, here is some more food!"
All our trials without exception, are bread for us, and as
we accept one trial after the other, we are more and more
richly nourished and the result is a continuous increase
of strength.   Watchman Nee

What a challenge for those of us who live
in these times where life seems to change on a dime.
Watchman Nee was not a light weight for his ministry
corresponded to the rise of Mao and he spent the last 20
years of his life in a Chinese prison. Nee died in 1972.
After his conversion, he established numerous churches
and wrote many books. One of my favorites is
The Normal Christian Life. Nee walked the talk. While
in prison he offered to clean the cells of other prisoners.
In this way many were saved. How could he possibly
do this day after day without the understanding that trials
were food for his soul! He couldn't--and neither can we.
In the west we seem to get the drip, drip, drip of discour-
agement in little things, while our brothers and sisters in
other parts of the world face daily hindrances from their
families and religious leaders, not to mention the govern-
ments. Regardless, the enemy wants to muzzle us.

He is risen!
Let's go out and eat snake!